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Ready to Grow Your Small Business Team?

Shayla Ebsen

June 05, 2015

Are growing pains affecting your small business? If so, then it may be time to grow the team.

Here are some tips for finding the right employees, expanding your workspace, focusing on employee retention and more:

Assess Company Needs

You can't find the right employees if you don't know which departments are in the direst need of additional staff. Before you send posts to local job boards, research your company's current staffing needs.

This research can take several forms such as talking to current staff about work in their departments, looking at department revenues and more.

By pinpointing the company's biggest growing pains, you can strategically hire new employees to ease those pains. 

Ask the Right Interview Questions

You've sent out job posts and the resumes have started filling your inbox. Now what?

Hiring the best employees for your business starts with asking the right questions.

Start by pre-screening potential applicants with a quick phone interview.

This interview should cover a few basics such as ensuring that applicants understand and can meet the basic position requirements.

Official interviews should include asking the right questions designed to probe an applicant's experience and abilities.

For example, rather than reviewing an applicant's portfolio and asking about greatest strengths and weaknesses, ask for specific examples of previous workplace practice and projects. The targeted interview questions can help you find the best employees sooner.

Look for Culture Matches

Applicant shouldn't just possess desirable job skills. They should also have personalities that match your small business's culture.

In fact, new employees with values that match those of your company are more likely to stay with the company longer than employees who are only equipped to handle job duties.

To better understand your company's culture, work with current employees to create a list of corporate value (if you don't already have such a list). Company values act as guiding lights in the face of difficult decisions, staffing decisions and more.

Update your Workspace

With new employees comes the need for a new workspace.

As the article “Growing the team in 2015” looks at, it may require the move to a larger office space or it may simply require the purchase of additional equipment such as computers, desks, chairs and more.

Before sending out the first job posting, assess your current workspace, determine which changes must be made and learn the costs that will be associated with those changes.

Looking at this bigger picture can also help ensure that your company is truly financially able to handle additional staffing.

Assess the Communication Climate

While your employees may be excited for the relief in job duties that new employees will bring, they may be unprepared to handle the other changes that will come with new staff.

For example, your current small business team may have solidly formed roles, communication styles and work methods.

The addition of a new team member can shake the foundation of those established practices. Prepare for the change by assessing the communication climate and prep staff for the wave of new hires.

Team building activities, communications trainings and the development of new processes may all be necessary. 

Adding more employees to your small business can be exciting since this is a sign that business is growing. However, if not properly managed, expanding your work force can also bring problems.

Avoid the issues by knowing how to find the right employees and more.

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